1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an installation for the treatment of products in bulb or tuber form in relation to the removal of the outermost layer thereof, which installation has a channel through which the products can be transported between an inlet and an outlet that are at different levels, which channel is delimited by a first series of rotary treatment elements arranged alongside one another and extending transversely to the direction of transport, and by an opposing boundary opposite the series of treatment elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
An installation of this type is disclosed in Netherlands Patent 166386 and is used for brushing dry steam- or lye-peeled tubers, for example potatoes. This known installation has a treatment channel positioned at an angle, the bottom wall of which is formed by a series of drivable brush rollers and the top wall of which is formed by the underpart of a drivable endless conveyor belt. The brush rollers transport the tubers from the lowest end of the treatment channel to the highest end thereof. The underpart is driven in the direction opposing the transport device for the brush rollers.
The disadvantage of this known installation is that this is fairly complex and expensive, both to purchase and to maintain. The brush rollers have a fairly aggressive action on the tubers, as a result of which a lot of tuber material is lost. Moreover, the brush rollers themselves also wear fairly severely.
A further disadvantage is that the transport of the tubers is fairly susceptible to the dimensions of the tubers. As a result blockage can easily occur and the installation has to be continually monitored. This adversely affects the operational reliability of the installation.
It also proves difficult to control the residence time of the tubers in the installation. This is mainly determined by the speed of revolution of the brush rollers, which, however, is dictated by the requirement that the skin has to be properly removed from the tubers. Furthermore, it is found that the known installation cannot be cleaned easily.